Bemiss, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bemiss, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Bemiss lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Bemiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bemiss — the short answer
Bemiss, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Lowndes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bemiss's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bemiss's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bemiss
Each reading below is measured for Bemiss itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBemiss runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Lowndes County, the closest normal to Bemiss) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBemiss sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Bemiss is in
Bemiss sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bemiss's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lowndes County.
What Grows in Bemiss
Every plant below cleared Bemiss's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bemiss?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Bemiss
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bemiss. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALDOSTAPFAS · 25 ft
- OAK STREET SUBDIVISIONPFAS · 25 ft
- 20F045Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 20F047Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- OMINI #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 20F038Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 20F044Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- MALLORY'S BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 20F037Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- AMOCO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GEORGIA CUMBERLAND ASSOCIATION OUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 20F043Nitrate · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bemiss's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Bemiss.
Total Sites
500
within ~10 miles of Bemiss
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bemiss
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bemiss
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bemiss, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bemiss — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (140 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bemiss
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bemiss average
Your land is one point inside Bemiss
Everything above resolves to Bemiss as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lowndes County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Bemiss Average
Bemiss Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bemiss
- ●One soil character for all of Bemiss
- ●Frost dates read at Bemiss's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bemiss's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bemiss
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bemiss, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bemiss averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bemiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bemiss average
How we know this about Bemiss
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lowndes County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Bemiss
When does frost risk typically end in Bemiss?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bemiss typically lands around Feb 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Bemiss?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bemiss typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bemiss?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bemiss sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 23, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bemiss?
The federal record around Bemiss is a meaningful one — 500 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (251), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bemiss?
From about Nov 7 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bemiss's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bemiss's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Bemiss’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bemiss's own scale — the 4,952 acres it covers and 500 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bemiss's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 500 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bemiss, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bemiss's boundary and the 4,952 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bemiss's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bemiss has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lowndes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bemiss's 4,952 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lowndes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lowndes County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lowndes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bemiss's 4,952 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bemiss you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,952 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Bemiss-wide figureread your own land →
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